Lost and Found
by caitewarren
Summary: Emma, Henry and Rumple travel to NY city in search of Rumple's long lost son but they head home with a former lover and a father.
1. Chapter 1

It'd been the third time August had called and the third time Neal had pressed the red ignore button. He knew what the man had to say already, he's said it a couple of times already in previous phone calls. _Come to Storybrooke….I can't….Emma's there….and what makes you think she'll be happy to see me…..Neal you have to come to Storybrooke….I don't have to do anything_. And then he'd pressed disconnect. There were two reasons why he didn't travel to Storybrooke, first was facing Emma, he wasn't quite sure if he could swallow the guilt or handle the pain if he saw her moved on with someone new, and secondly his Papa.

The curse had been broken for at least three or four weeks. Mr. whatever his name was had to have remembered once upon a time that he was Rumpelstiltskin and that he had a son. He'd been waiting for someone to come find him, magic was here, it wouldn't be all that hard. Enchant something.

Emma felt positively and utterly stupid as she walked into the small café. She was carrying an old tattered cloak of sorts that was suppose to led her to a person that according to Mr. Gold had been lost centuries ago, his son. It came as a shock to nearly all of her family. No one had ever heard of Rumpelstiltskin's son and he wasn't in Henry's book. Gold's story was short and simple and cryptic. He explained that his son was searching for a way for the pair of them to travel to a non magical world so that he'd be powerless and something went wrong, what exactly, Mr. Gold didn't explain quite well. And since she'd owed him a debt she really didn't have much choice.

"Anything?" Henry muttered beside her.

Emma shook her head. People in the café were giving her odd looks. _Oh c'mon it's New York City you have to had seen some other weird stuff before!_ Emma though to herself when out of the corner of her eye she saw _him_. She starred at him for a moment. He was most definitely Neal Cassidy. Though it was an odd sight to see him dressed in a large oversized sweatshirt and khaki pants and a briefcase was on his table. He didn't notice her but rather was intently starring down at a small piece of paper in his hands.

"Emma!" Henry said.

Henry stood a few paces ahead motioning her forward. Neal looked up at that moment and for the briefest of seconds they exchanged a glance. The cloak in her hands jerked forward at that moment leaping out of her hands and flying across the ground and landed directly at Neal's feet. _No, no, no, _Emma thought to herself.

"It found him!" Henry declared.

Neal glanced quickly between Henry, to Emma and then at his cloak resting on his feet before he began to race out of the café dodging people and tables whilst doing so.

"Neal!" Emma cried after him, "Henry go find Mr. Gold and stay with him by the car,"

**Alleyway**

"Neal!" Emma cried whilst gasping out of breath, "there is no one else to go!"

She was right. There was no one else to go. He'd literally cornered himself between Emma Swan and a brick wall.

"You haven't changed," Neal muttered softly.

"Apparently neither have you. Always running from things," Emma spat out, "are you Baelfire?"

It'd been twenty years since he'd last heard that name.

"I was."

Henry and Mr. Gold appeared at the end of the alleyway. Immediately Rumple knew his son and Emma had some sort of history due to the way both of their bodies were tensed and the way they spoke to each other. Hesitantly and cautiously.

"Henry I told you to find Mr. Gold and stay near the car!" Emma admonished whilst starring worriedly between Neal and Henry.

There'd been times when Henry did something or said something that reminded her of him. Like the time he'd sprung up in the backseat of the same car. It was bittersweet. Emma stared back at Neal wondering if he could have possibly been placing the pieces together in his head but Neal was rather starring intently at Mr. Gold with a panic stricken face.

"Bae?" Mr. Gold spoke. The way his son flinched made his heart ache. Neal began to step backwards towards the brick wall wishing he was anywhere else but here, with the Dark One. _Papa_! A voice cried in his head, _it's what you wanted, your Papa to come with you_.

A part of Emma felt bad for Neal right now and another part of herself admonished herself for allowing any sympathy for Neal Cassidy.

"I'm not going to Storybrooke," Neal muttered.

"Why?" Mr. Gold questioned.

"Because you're still the Dark One," Neal answered, "I know magic is here and I know that created a curse-

"To find you Bae it was the only way I could come to find you!"

Neal wiped his hand with his face, "and that's suppose to make me feel better?!" he questioned, "really? Do you think I'd find comfort in you cursing innocent people? You're the reason why Emma had to be ripped away from her parents, why she and I both had to live through the hell that was foster care! You haven't changed at all. Not one little bit. And if I go back there it's just going to be the same!"

There was always something about Henry that reminded Gold of Baelfire and now he knew why. He felt guilty about doing this. Guilt for the pain he was about to cause Emma, Henry and Neal.

"You wouldn't go to Storybrooke even for the sake of your own son?"

**A/N: Please review. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Neal's Apartment **

"Its rinky dinky," Emma muttered as soon as they entered the apartment.

Neal shrugged his shoulders as he hurriedly pulled a suitcase out of his closet hastily throwing clothing into it not caring for the state of his wrinkled clothing. He wanted nothing more than his eight or nine hour car ride with his father to be over with as soon as possible.

"I'd thought after selling the watches you could afford something much nicer."

Emma walked further into the apartment starring at the array of odd items hanging on the walls. Old signs, old knick-knacks, collector's items, something Neal once said he'd wanted to decorate their walls in Tallahassee with. Something at the time she'd scoffed at.

"I gave that money to you," Neal stated.

Emma chuckled dryly, "I'd think I'd remember a lump of cash being brought to me in jail,"

He stood up. His hair ruffled from digging deep into the contents of his closet. A perplexed expression plastered to his face.

"Emma I gave that money to August to give to you along with the car." He said slowly as she wouldn't be able to understand her.

The name catches her off guard. It's a name she hadn't thought of since returning home from Fairytale land. According to Geppetto his room was empty and she concluded that perhaps he'd run off or gone somewhere.

"You gave the money to _Pinocchio_?" she angrily accused.

**In Emma's Car**

"So if Neal slash Baelfire is my father….that makes you my grandfather?" Henry concluded staring wearily at the eerily silent Mr. Gold who sat in the back clutching to the tattered cloak as if it were a lifeline of sorts.

"I suppose so dearie," Mr. Gold answered.

**A Few Hours Later**

To say that tensions were high in the little yellow bug would be quite an understatement. Sitting in the driver's seat was Emma Swan whose hands were clutched so tightly onto the stirring wheel that her knuckles were white, Henry sat in the passenger seat pretending to be flipping through his book, Rumpelstiltskin who was starring intently at his long lost son and Neal slash Baelfire who was intently playing with a Dream catcher attempting to avoid eye contact with any of the other passengers in the car.

"Emma," Neal muttered breaking the uneasy silence for the first time since they'd all climbed into the car.

"I'm not talking to you." Emma said sternly pressing harder down onto the gas.

"It's at the very least a five hour drive no matter how many miles above the speed limit you drive," Neal pointed out, "it's going to be a very long car ride if it's in silence."

Henry glanced towards his mother. It wasn't hard to tell that she was uncomfortable.

"I'd like to explain something to you….," Neal murmured, "why I left…,"

The car jerked slightly sending all of the passengers forward into their seats.

"That is the very last thing I'd like to hear at this moment," Emma snapped out, "and it's the last thing I'd like to hear especially in the company of Mr. Gold and…..she trailed off glancing towards Henry.

"Our son?" Neal suggested.

Henry shifted in his seat to turn and face Neal who managed to give him a weak smile.

"No," Emma answered, "my son."

**Storybrooke**

"Let me get this straight," Charming muttered as he paced the apartment. It'd been the third time that Emma had spoken of what had happened when they went to New York but there were bits and pieces that she was leaving out, "you found him? He didn't want to go but he did why did he?"

His cluelessness had meant that Mary-Margaret-er- Snow White-er-Mom had kept her promise on the telephone to keep quiet. There was a part of her that worried that she would tell to her inseparable true love husband. Relief washed over her as she gave Snow White a soft smile.

"Because he's my father," Henry chirped from behind Emma as he shrugged out of his coat tossing it onto the sofa.

Charming looked as if something rather large and heavy had just landed on his foot. He starred between Emma and then to Henry and then to Emma again stuttering something incoherent. Snow White padded along the carpet and gripped her hand tightly onto his arms.

"Charming?" she said.

"Henry's father?" Charming questioned.

This was one of the last things she ever wanted to speak about. Ever. She'd spent the last ten years well more like eight years trying to forget that Neal Cassady had ever existed and attempted to forget that she tried to find him in Tallahassee for two years that she was that naïve to believe he'd stay there and wait for her.

"Rumpelstiltskin's son is Henry's father?" Charming roared, "did he plan this too?"

Henry shook his head wildly, "nope. He said and I quote 'This dearie isn't something I ever foresaw'," Henry had a scarily good impression of the little imp.

"How about you and Henry go out to eat?" Snow suggested giving her husband a look, "I think Emma needs to rest."

From the look of emotional turmoil on her daughter's face, Snow, knew she needed to talk. Though she'd never voice it Emma wasn't comfortable with Charming. To her he was still David Nolan a man who'd broken the heart of her once best friend. It wasn't something Snow would ever voice to James either. It'd break his heart. He was trying his very best to not push anything but it was tempting even his patience.

"All right," James said after a couple of moments. Hesitantly he reached his arm out and grabbed his daughter's hand, when she didn't resist it, he held on tighter. Her eyes were downcast, "if you need anything…._anything _I'm here. If you want me to go have a little chat with Rumpelstiltskin's son I'll do it."

Emma blinked away the tears forming at her eyes before muttering soft thanks. It was all she could muster at that very moment.


	3. Chapter 3

**Granny's Diner **

Neal felt as though he'd been run over, picked up again and then run over once more. His whole body ached. His head felt just about ready to implode and the guilt that was eating at his stomach was painful. He used to tell himself if he just _saw _her just _once _more and that she was okay he'd be all right. He didn't know how wrong he was. There was no even measly amount of "all right" he felt. None.

"Hello," a voice said from behind him.

The speaker is a pretty brunette haired woman with wide set gleaming blue eyes who offers a brief smile to him before clambering into the empty seat in front of him. She tapped her fingers along the edge of the table in a nervous jitter as she kept offering him the same brief smile. She wasn't anyone he recognized, perhaps he should have, but he didn't. Perhaps his brain was too frayed at the moment to ponder who this woman was.

"I'm Belle." The woman continued offering her hand out to him.

Neal placed the dream catcher he'd been fiddling with gently and tenderly onto the table before offering his own hand.

"Neal," he replied shaking her dainty sized hand, "I don't mean to come across as rude or blunt but do I know you?"

"Uhm no, but I know of you," she replied and leaned in closer and whispered, "I know of you, _Baelfire_."

Neal sighed. If there was one thing he'd learned from his Papa being the dark one it was that names held power. That name invoked memories he'd tried his best to burry in his past. Baelfire of Fairytale land was much different than Neal Cassidy of the land without magic.

"Your father has been looking for you everywhere."

The tone of her voice when she speaks of _him _makes him weary. It's not resentment, fear or hatred which is what people usually used when speaking of the "Dark One", rather it was endearment. Perhaps she was bond to him by some ungodly deal her father had made in a last ditch attempt to save his kingdom. It seemed reasonable.

"What kind of deal got you caught up in this mess?"

"What mess?"

"The mess of being bond to Rumpelstiltskin the one that's making you speak of him as if you love-

"I do love him," Belle interjected, "why do you think I couldn't bear love for your Papa? He is not a monster. Just a man willing to do everything and anything to save his child…..not that many of his methods I agree with but he did it all in love searching for you."

"He created a curse. Cursing hundreds of innocent people, taking their memories, making them forgot who they are, tore Emma from her parents, made her suffer in the hell that is foster care here."

"Emma?" Belle questioned and than looked to the dream catcher sitting on the table beside them, "you love Emma…you're Henry's father."

"Yes."

"The dream catcher is like your tea cup…," Belle said wistfully.

"My _what_?" Neal questioned before standing and digging out a five from his pocket to pay for his coffee, "Belle you seem like a nice person you do and it was nice meeting you and all but I need to figure out a way to start making up to Emma and to my kid. And my advice get out of the tangled webs that are Rumpelstiltskin-

"You've changed Baelfire."

"I grow up in a world that swallows the weak and the different….this land changes all."


End file.
